Santa Elena Watch Tower

3D Model

Santa Elena Tower located in Murcia, Spain, was designed by the Italian military engineer Giovanni Battista Antonelli and built somewhere between 1556 and 1598. It had to guard the sea for possible pirates, warning the locals by means of smoke during daytime and fire during nighttime. in 1516, the entire coast of the Spanish Mediterranean was threatened by attacks of Barbary pirates who landed on the coast and ravaged and looted towns and rural settlements, taking away the inhabitants as slaves. So, in 1552, during the reign of Charles V, lots of defensive watchtowers were started being built along the coast, from Alicante down to Cádiz.